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[quote=Anonymous]Look, I sympathize with feeling that you are bare bones, but you really aren't.

As has been pointed out, your cell phone fee it much too high.  I recently switched from my cell phone plan which I had had for almost 20 years to a new one on Virgin Mobile and upgraded to a smart phone in the deal.  I bought a smart phone when it was on sale 30% off.  And I now pay $35/month for 300 minutes talk time and unlimited data, text and messaging.  For $45 you can get the same with 1200 minutes and for $55 you can same with unlimited talk.   You can get three phones on unlimited talk for less than what you are spending on your one cell phone.  That's a big savings there.   Frankly a smart phone with an expensive plan is a luxury, not a necessity and you can get very similar service for well under $100 from more than one carrier.  I'm sorry, but if you are trying to cut corners and save money, you don't need an iPhone 5S with unlimited everything.  That's one of the most expensive plans I've heard of for a single phone.

And I buy clothes for myself and my twins at thrift and consignment shops.  I spend $300 twice per year for both of them and they are toddlers when they are changing sizes every 2-3 months.  I spend about $100-150 maybe twice per year for myself.    $466 in one month is ridiculous for 2 people unless that is a seasonal cost that you only do 2-3 times per year.  Every month?  That is not cutting corners.  Some people go out and spend $100-200 for a new outfit.  You're doing that 2-3 times per month and calling it bare bones?  The only difference is that you've gotten 15-20 outfits and they've gotten 3, but you've both splurged and spent money that could have been saved.  Spending $466 is not saving money, it's spending money.

And $258.60 on gas?  And you say you only drive about 15 miles per day?  That means that you drive about 450-500 miles per month.  If you use regular gas, at $3.50 per gallon (it's cheaper than that now) that means that you are only getting about 6-7 miles per gallon.  Either you drive a Hummer, use premium gas with a huge Escalade or your car needs servicing.  Even most minivans will get better mileage.  For 500 miles per month, even at 20 mpg (and a Dodge Grand Caravan gets 20 mpg)  you should be using about 25 gallons a month which should come out to less than $100 per month.  A big SUV like an Escalade gets 16 mpg and that would still be like $125 half of what you spent.  Something is wrong here.

If you cut your phone budget in half and your clothing budget to 1/3, then you can save about $400 per month right there.  And frankly, that's not cutting out any necessities, that's just cutting out luxuries.[/quote]

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